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Sports

Prairie Ridge's Covers Resumes All-Around Success

Prairie Ridge co-op senior Jenny Covers wins her season all-around debut and three events at the Lake Forest Invitational.

There are two big challenges this season for senior Jenny Covers and her e co-op girls gymnastics teammates: injuries and patience.

Covers is the defending state meet champion on vault and floor exercise, but she only has been competing on a couple of events at meets while trying to keep her lofty postseason goals in focus.  

She made her all-around season debut at Saturday’s Lake Forest Invitational, five weeks away from the state meet.

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“I see these girls (on other teams) and they’re competing everything and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to do it,’ but I wasn’t ready so I had to take my time,” Covers said. “We planned it out so I can slowly and gradually get to where I am now.”

Covers appears to be back in form. She won all-around and three events, including a 9.9 on vault, to help Prairie Ridge co-op finish fourth of 12 teams with 139.625 points.

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Covers, who attends Prairie Ridge, won all-around (38.25) and also captured the uneven parallel bars and floor with 9.7 scores. She had her lone mistake on balance beam, a fall on an aerial for an automatic 0.5 deduction, and scored an 8.95 for ninth place.

“The little things. I was laughing, like come on, an aerial of all things,” Covers said.
“(Overall, I was) a little nervous because I only did beam and vault before, but bars and floor were my new thing. I got a new routine on floor so I was a little nervous. Just mostly nerves. It happens to everyone, though. I don’t try to let it get to me but I think it did affect me a little.”

Sophomore Danielle Dyra earned an individual ribbon by taking eighth on floor (9.2). Freshman Sarah Kramer and senior Colleen Bransley also competed as all-arounders, junior Brittany Potts competed on three events, Dyra and freshman Rachel Kagebein competed on two and junior Nikki Novak only competed on uneven bars.

“I thought (our meet) went good. The unfortunate thing is we had a couple of injuries, one we had here,” Prairie Ridge co-op coach Lee Battaglia said.  “That kind of hurt, but Jenny did remarkable. We’ve just been going slow because she has got to get ready for her Level 10 (club gymnastics) nationals, which is in April, and you can’t push these kids too early especially with the stuff she’s doing. You can’t do it. Our goal was to hit four events. She hit three. She did a good job.”

The invite featured four teams from the 2010 state meet that are contenders for the eight berths this year. Defending state champion Carmel (150.225) and returning state runner-up Lyons Township (144.775) were first and second with third place going to the host Scouts (143.90), eighth at state last year.

Prairie Ridge co-op, fourth at state last year, won the invite in 2010 and 2009 but went into Saturday with a depleted lineup.

Novak originally was going to be an all-arounder but was limited to her one event as a precaution after hurting her knee in practice Wednesday. During the invite, Dyra, entered as an all-arounder, had a great floor set but then injured her ankle landing her Yurchenko vault and scratched the other two events.

The Wolves still are awaiting the return of senior Heather Kill after she underwent knee surgery in August. Kill’s progress is being evaluated this week and she remains hopeful to be competing by the postseason. Kill is the only other returnee from last year’s state lineup, contributing as an all-arounder.

Newcomers Novak (Level 10) and Dyra (Level 9), however, are talented club veterans.

“(Club nationals is) a long-term goal. The short-term goal is high-school state,” Covers said. “We’ve had little injuries here and there and you just get frustrated with yourself, but Heather’s finally getting better so that will be a big impact on our team. We just have to stay positive and stay healthy.”

With three girls on the team with high aspirations at club regionals and nationals, Battaglia said those gymnasts are being trained to train to peak that competition, April well past the state weekend Feb. 18-19.

“When we get to the state meet, it’s going to be like another meet,” Battagalia said. “We’re not training to peak at state. We’re training to peak at (club) nationals. You can do one or the other. You can’t do both with the kids. They’re not robots.”

Besides 2010, Covers won 2009 state titles in all-around and vault. Even without using all of her toughest skills Saturday, she was quite impressive. She has had the highest score on vault at the Lake Forest Invite all four years, competing with another all-arounder back in 2008. She scored 9.9 for the second year in a row with a Yurchenko layout full, a vault she first performed as a sophomore, although she’s working 1 ½ and double fulls.

Harder floor skill also should be on the way. In her competitive debut, she defended her invite title with tumbling passes that included a double pike, a handspring front, full front pike and a front full. Her uneven bars start also was a positive when she caught her pike Jaeger release move on the higher bar.

“I almost missed that,” Covers said. “I held on, seriously, for my life. But sometimes it’s going to be like that.”

Covers knows all too well. She missed qualifying for state last year in the event and in the 2010 state preliminaries, she missed her Jaeger for an 8.975 that resulted in a 37.675 all-around total for third place, 0.60 behind graduated champion Kim Gotlund of Warren.

“I missed (an opportunity to win) the all-around and bars,” Covers said. “It’s more about redemption (this season). I have that on the back of my mind, I think and it’s my senior year so I’m definitely more determined than I have been in the past.”

Lake Forest Invitational
1. Carmel 150.225, 2. Lyons Township 144.775, 3. Lake Forest 143.90, 4. Prairie Ridge co-op 139.625, 5. Conant 135.80, 6. St. Charles co-op 135.10, 7. Deerfield 134.475, 8. Warren 133.825, 9. Lake Park 130.625, 10. Niles North 129.125, 11. Vernon Hills 123.65, 12. Hoffman Estates 108.05 

Prairie Ridge individual results
All-around: 1. Jenny Covers 38.25, 24. Sarah Kramer 33.85, 31. Colleen Bransley 31.75
Vault: 1. Covers 9.9, 30. Brittany Potts 8.6, 38. Danielle Dyra 8.325, 45. Kramer 8.15, 49T. Bransley 8.05
Uneven parallel bars: 1. Covers 9.7, 14. Potts 8.75, 25T. Nikki Novak and Kramer 8.3, 43T. Bransley 7.4
Balance beam: 9. Covers 8.95, 20T. Kramer 8.5, 37T. Rachel Kagebein 7.9, 39T. Potts 7.7, 42T. Bransley 7.55
Floor exercise: 1. Covers 9.7, 8. Dyra 9.2, 17T. Kramer 8.9, 25. Bransley 8.75, 40. Kagebein 8.35

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